1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic information processing apparatus for electronically processing information associated with business operations required for cloth goods planning, a dress goods planning, and retail stock planning in the field of, e.g., apparel business and, more particularly, to processing of goods data having aesthetic or impressive attributes expressed by feeling expression words.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention also relates to a system for translating feeling expression words having different meanings (ambiguous meanings) based on different persons or aesthetic/intuitive sensuous expressions into information having a specific meaning. More particularly, the present invention relates to a sensuous expression translating system having a translation dictionary which can translate a given feeling expression word or sensuous expression and appropriately corrects the translation result in accordance with a given situation, thereby providing a learning/expansion function to the dictionary.
An apparel business world dealing with large-variation, small-quality cloths such as female quality dresses which tend to gain or lose the popularity is constituted by a large number of textile companies 102 which plan and manufacture textiles or cloths, a large number of apparel makers 104 which plan and manufacture dresses, and a large number of retail shops 108 which sell the dresses to general customers 106. Each textile company 102 delivers or sells cloths to a plurality of apparel makers 104, each apparel maker 104 delivers or sells the dresses to a plurality of retail shops 108, and each retail shop 108 sells the dresses to an indefinite number of customers 106, thus constituting a hierarchical structure.
Divisions where the goods are sold to the lower levels, i.e., the divisions where sales data are produced, are represented by hatched regions in FIG. 5.
Of the divisions where the sales data are produced, retail shop 108 performs electronic totaling or total processing and prepares a database on the basis of points of sales (POSs) of shops and on-line order and order reception data. The database is used for dress stock planning. In other levels, a business showing and the like of goods for lower levels are stored as a database in a sales division, and the resultant database is used in the planning division to plan goods.
FIG. 6 is a view showing an arrangement of an electronic information processing apparatus used in each company to support goods stock planning and goods planning described above. Referring to FIG. 6, reference numeral 110 denotes a data input device such as a bar code or card reader for reading a bar code tag attached to each goods and a register system; and 112, a designation/display device for data input operations.
Reference numeral 114 denotes an input processor for processing input data into a format necessary for forming a database, storing the processed data in auxiliary storage device 116 constituted by a local database (DB) and a memory, and sending a related description representing a specific goods purchased by a specific customer (company) at a specific time to central processing unit (CPU) 120 through on-line/off-line 118.
CPU 120 has master DB 120A including a sales DB for storing totaling information and the like, a customer DB for storing customer information, and a goods DB for storing goods information. CPU 120 determines the related description sent through the on-or off-line with reference to master DB 120A to perform totaling, thereby properly adding information to master DB 120A.
Reference numeral 122 denotes a designation/display device used for outputting totaling information and the like stored in master DB 120A.
Reference numeral 124 denotes an output processor for properly processing information supplied from master DB 120A under the control of CPU 120 when an output of totaling information or the like is designated at designation/display device 122. Output processor 124 then stores the processed information in auxiliary storage device 126 constituted by a local database (DB) and a memory, and outputs the processed data to CRT/printer 128.
In textile company 102 and apparel company 104, sales data of the goods of apparel company 104 or sales data of goods sold to retail shop 108 are totaled using this electronic information processing apparatus. A goods planner utilizes the totaling information for the next goods planning. Similarly, retail shop 108 totals the business showing of the dresses, and the resultant information is utilized for the next dress stock planning.
As described above, limited totaling has been conventionally performed on the basis of information within each company. That is, information of any other competitor or any other level is not available. Even if it is possible, a correspondence between the goods number and the actual goods is unknown, and information of the competitor or any other level cannot be analyzed. As only the business showing of the limited goods can be analyzed, a market trend cannot be predicted. Planned goods are not sold as expected, and an excessive stock is left, thus frequently resulting in undesirable returned goods and the excessive stock.
Companies of the respective levels may be connected through a computer network, and information open to the public may be exchanged between the companies in sufficient consideration of security.
The electronic information processing apparatuses of the respective companies are designed for the specific purposes of the corresponding companies. For this reason, the electronic information processing apparatus of a given company cannot be simply connected to those of other companies.
Each goods information has an aesthetic, sensuous, or impressive attribute such as a color and feeling or impression of a cloth. As such aesthetic attributes are classified based on different evaluation axes of the respective companies, the goods of the respective companies cannot be simply gathered and classified. For example, an attribute representing "green" in one company may be classified as an attribute representing "yellowish green" in another company. Therefore, some criterion is required for the aesthetic attributes for information exchange.
Meanwhile, if a given apparel designer wants to order a desired cloth suitable for his or her own design to a given cloth company (cloth manufacturer), an ambiguous sensuous expression (designer's words) is frequently used in a conversation (negotiation) between the designer and a salesman of the cloth company (or a cloth designer). Conventionally, when a designer orders a cloth, he or she does not present detailed physical data (or an exact cloth code), but orders the cloth using an ambiguous expression (designer's words) saying a "light, soft, warm, flossy cloth" or "silk-like, less-drapey, tensity, firm wool", although such an expression can be roughly understood.
The designer's words have large individual differences in meaning. A common language does not exit between the designer and the salesman (or between the designers). In other words, no common objective language does not exit between a cloth buyer and a cloth seller. In practice, smooth communication cannot be established between them.
Even if a designer explains the contents of a desired cloth to the cloth salesman (or the cloth designer), using the ambiguous designer's words associated with the feeling of the cloth (feeling expression words), the intention of the designer cannot be accurately understood by the salesman (or the cloth designer). A desired cloth cannot often be obtained unless samples are repeatedly produced or different types of samples are produced. Under these circumstances, a cloth having the feeling matching the intention of the designer cannot be easily produced. Negotiation time with the designer for re-manufacturing the cloth samples, and re-manufacturing expenses and time are wasted.
This phenomenon is not limited to the case in which an apparel designer orders a cloth. This also applies to all cases in which communication is established using ambiguous sensuous expressions (e.g., negotiations associated with taste, smell, sound, and the like).